William Friedkin, the acclaimed director best known for his Oscar-winning 1971 film “The French Connection” and the 1973 horror film “The Exorcist,” has died. He was 87.
Friedkin died Monday in Los Angeles, Stephen Galloway, Chapman University dean and friend of Friedkin’s wife, Sherry Lansing, confirmed to USA TODAY.
Friedkin had been working until recently on his final film, “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial,” starring Kiefer Sutherland as Phillip Queeg. The film will premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September.
Friedkin was part of a new generation of directors that redefined filmmaking in the 1970s, that included Peter Bogdanovich, Francis Ford Coppola and Hal Ashby.
“The French Connection,” based on a true story, deals with the efforts of maverick New York City police Detective James “Popeye” Doyle to track down Frenchman Fernando Rey, mastermind of a large drug pipeline funneling heroin into the United States. It contains one of the most thrilling chase scenes ever filmed.
The movie won Friedkin an Academy Award for best director along with best picture, screenplay and film editing and led critics to hail Friedkin, then just 32, as a leading member of this emerging generation of filmmakers.
He followed with an even bigger blockbuster, “The Exorcist,” based on William Peter Blatty’s best-selling novel about a 12-year-old girl possessed by the devil.
The harrowing scenes of the girl’s possession and a splendid cast, including Linda Blair as the girl, Ellen Burstyn as her mother and Max Von Sydow and Jason Miller as the priests who try to exorcise the devil from her, helped make the film a box-office sensation. It was so scary for its era that many viewers fled the theater before it was over and some reported being unable to sleep for days afterward.
It received 10 Oscar nominations, including one for Friedkin as director, and won two, for Blatty’s script and for sound.
With that second success, Friedkin would go on to direct movies and TV shows well into the 21st century. But he would never again come close to matching the success of those early works.
Other film credits included “To Live and Die in L.A.,” “Cruising,” “Rules of Engagement” and a TV remake of the classic play and Sidney Lumet movie “12 Angry Men.” Friedkin also directed episodes for such TV shows as “The Twilight Zone,” “Rebel Highway” and “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”
Contributing: The Associated Press
